40 years of hurt need to come to an end for English rugby league fans according to Steve McNamara.England host the Rugby League World Cup in 2013 and will be desperate to win on home soil.McNamara was less than 12 months old when Great Britain last lifted the trophy in 1972, but he has left no stone unturned in his efforts to end that barren run.As a coach he has enjoyed unparalleled access to his Super League-based England players throughout the last two years and, in addition to once more tapping into the state-of-the-art facilities at Loughborough University, is set to take his elite squad back to South Africa for a high-altitude training camp on the eve of the autumn tournament

Although hardly a perfect yardstick, McNamara believes his side's thumping success in the low-key 2012 autumn international series put them on the right track for the bigger tests ahead and he has received some backing from former Australia captain Darren Lockyer."England had some injuries, particularly to their players in Australia, and that allowed new talent to come in and for Steve McNamara to look at them," said Lockyer, a 2013 World Cup ambassador."I look back at the 2009 Four Nations final where Australia ran away with it in the last 15 minutes. From an English point of view, they've got to find that 15 minutes and, if they bring the players in that were missing last time, they're right in there."It would be a massive boost to the code if England were to win the World Cup."The Kangaroos, sure to be overwhelming favourites, have won nine of the previous 13 contests but they are not the holders following their surprising loss to New Zealand in the 2008 final in Brisbane."They'll be motivated by 2008," Lockyer said. "That's probably the one thing that makes the Australians very hard to beat."But the Kiwis are the holders and England are the home team so that's a great little mix."The smaller developing nations will have a lot of NRL and Super League talent - there is talk of Ben Barba playing for Papua New Guinea - and they could quite easily surprise."The tournament is set up in such a way that every game going to be a contest. You're going to see competitive games every time the teams take to the field."England are in Group A alongside Australia, Ireland and Fiji, while the Kiwis are in Group B alongside France, Papua New Guinea and Samoa, with three teams to qualify from each pool for the knockout stages.Joint hosts Wales, who failed to qualify for the last World Cup, are in Group D with the Cook Islands and the USA while Group C comprises Scotland, Tonga and Italy, with one team to qualify for the last eight from those two pools.Fiji are likely to be boosted by the availability of former Kangaroos Lote Tuqiri, who played for them in 2000, and Petero Civoniceva, while New Zealand's hopes will soar if the controversial Sonny Bill Williams makes himself available.Williams, who won the 2010 Rugby Union World Cup with the All Blacks, is returning to Australia's NRL with Sydney Roosters